(ATTN: CHANGES headline; UPDATES with Takaichi's address; EDITS to conform)

TOKYO, Aug. 15 (Yonhap) -- Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi sent an offering to a war shrine seen as a symbol of Japan's imperialistic past Saturday to mark the country's 1945 surrender in World War II, but did not visit the shrine in person.

Before taking office, Takaichi had visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15 every year, but she is believed to have refrained from doing so as prime minister in consideration of strong protests that such a visit would spark from neighboring countries South Korea and China.

Instead, Takaichi sent an offering to the shrine in her capacity as president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

Still, Japan's Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs Hitoshi Kikawada paid a visit to the shrine, while a group of LDP leaders also visited the shrine.

The shrine honors Japan's war dead, including 14 Class A war criminals, and neighboring countries view shrine visits by Japanese leaders as an attempt to beautify the country's militaristic past.

Later in the day, Takaichi failed to mention "remorse" in a speech mourning the war dead in a departure from her predecessor, Shigeru Ishiba, who pledged to renounce war and keep in mind Japan's "remorse" over the war.

She only said that the "horrors of war must never be repeated" and that Japan has "consistently walked the path of a nation that values peace and made all possible efforts for world peace and prosperity."

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